With 22,889 new COVID-19 cases, India's tally nears 1 crore-mark

New Delhi [India], December 18 (ANI): With 22,889 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, India's total cases reached 99,79,447, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.
With 338 new deaths, the toll mounted to 1,44,789. According to the Union Health Ministry, the total number of active cases in the country reached 3,13,831. Meanwhile, the total discharged cases are at 95,20,827 with 31,087 new discharges in the last 24 hours.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 15,89,18,646 samples tested for COVID-19 up to December 17. Of these 11,13,406 samples were tested Thursday.
The Health Ministry on Friday said that country's recovery rate is 95.31 per cent, the case fatality rate at 1.45 per cent, and the percentage of active cases is 3.24 per cent.
Maharastra continues to be the worst affected country by the pandemic with 68,476 active cases followed by Kerala with 58,339 active cases.
India recognised the COVID-19 threat early and pursued a scientific evidence-based approach to combat the situation, said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan while addressing a virtual event by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
Speaking on "Build Back Better: building resilient health infrastructure and supply chains", Vardhan said on Thursday, "It has been almost one year since the outbreak of COVID-19. While the caseload infection in many parts of the world is decreasing, many others are experiencing a second or even a third peak. Fortunately, in India, the cases are steadily coming down. We recognized the threat early and pursued a scientific evidence-based approach." (ANI)